whole house fan

[heehaw]

i "may" have asked this before, if so, i do not remember the answer: sorry if i am repeating myself: why couldn't a heat/ac blower fan, be used as a whole house fan? put it in the attic, with an opening about the size of the return air: an exhaust it to the outside: i have several of these things, an use them occasionally to set up and circulate the air in my garage when i am working in there, an they really do a heck of a job: i put one under my house several years ago, when it got a little damp under there, to dry it out: till i could locate an repair the place water was coming in: an again it seemed to work great: anyone ever try one as a whole house fan??
heehaw

 

[grsthegreat]

never tried it, but i cant see why it wouldn't work. A fan is a fan. The ac motor should be plenty quiet and is designed to circulate air.

would probably need some kind of auto damper though to close shaft when not in use.

 

[heehaw]

i was thinking, build a box in the attic for the fan, an put a spring loaded damper in the exhaust, so when i turn the fan on, it blows it open, an shuts when the fan is turned off..all i would do is open about 5 windows in the house a couple inches each, to get the air to circulate thru the house, an i just cannot see how this wouldn't work...
heehaw

 

[deepNdirt]

i use to have a couple of these old A/C plenum blowers in my shop and they really do great for blowing air, however all would do is blow the same air around, I then got a 48" attic fan and mounted it up high in the wall of my shop I can now open one of the doors on the far side from the fan and in a mater of minutes have the hot air exhaust to the outside,.............

I'm sure what you are suggesting will work as well, although you might consider building a plenum onto the inlet side of the blower and run a trunk of 15" duct to a Y-reducer stepping down to 2x10 and split into 2 trunks leading to rooms on each end of your home, remember these are designed to pull from multiple of returns throughout the house,